How We Paid for Our Fenced Yard for Our Rescue Dog

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Meet our rescue pup, Sam. Sam has been with us for a little over 2 years now and is one of the sweetest dogs you will ever meet. We visited only two animal shelters before we found Sam. He was gentle, submissive, and although this sounds crazy, he was polite. The only information we had was that he was sent from a shelter in Chattanooga, TN to Wisconsin because they were overcrowded. The vet at the shelter in Wisconsin couldn't give us a definite answer on his breed and they gave us an approximate age of 2 years old. But shortly after we got him home and I did some digging and contacted a few breeders from down south. They came to the conclusion that he is a mixed breed with the dominant breed being Mountain Cur (tree or hunting dog). After looking at pictures of Cur dogs, I agreed. However, his easy going temperament and submissive personality did not match up with that breeds description.

During our temporary apartment living here in MN, I saw the Mountain Cur in him. While our house was built here in Minnesota we lived in a temporary apartment complex. One morning on the way to the car a squirrel jumped out in front of him and he was gone after it in a flash. The squirrel was going one way and Sam was so quick that he got in front of the squirrel, turned it around, and chased it toward a light pole "treeing" it. It took forever to get his attention and to get him away from that light pole and squirrel. It was like he was a completely different dog. Almost like he was in a trance doing what he was bred to do. Though he is a very mild mannered dog, who could almost be considered "lazy", he definitely needs outdoor space.

Living in the temporary apartment here in MN was the hardest on Sam. During the time we lived in the apartment, he was unable to lay outside all day long; his favorite thing to do. We took him out as much as we could and let him lay around the dog park, but he's really the type of dog that just wants to lay out in the warm sun for hours and hours on end. Since someone had to be with him at all times, those days of laying outside all day were put on hold while we lived in the apartment. If it's true that dogs can become depressed, he sure did. He does not like to be indoors all day long.

Shortly after we moved into our newly built house, I discovered that I became a minimalist by accident. The minute we started to unpack boxes that had been in storage for 3 months prior, I knew I didn't want any of it back. We just had too much stuff. Stuff that we were able to live without while it was in storage and we lived with minimal things in the apartment. So while we unpacked boxes, my husband and I both took pictures with our phones of the things we decided we no longer wanted to keep and posted them on our local Facebook auction site. Not only did it feel good to unload all of our extra stuff, it also was pretty nice that we were putting some extra cash in our pockets! At the end of just a few weeks, we had brought in over $2,000. It felt so good to have so little clutter in our new house. While everyone in the house was happy with what they had, and did not miss what they no longer needed, there was one member of our family that was still a little bummed.

So we decided to take that extra cash and fence in our backyard for Sam.Since Cur dogs are a hound breed, we couldn't trust him to stay in the backyard without it being fenced in. Once he catches a scent, he's gone. And of course we don't want him wandering around since we are surrounded by farm fields and highways.

With the yard being fenced in, he is able to lay around all day long sniffing the air.

Even though he has a nice doggy hammock to lay in, he still prefers to lay in the grass, just watching everything around him.

The money we made on the excessive items that we sold on our local Facebook auction site was well spent on the fence for Sam. He has plenty of area to wander around, although he mostly just lays around. :)

We now feed Sam PEDIGREE® Adult Dry Dog Food that we purchase from Sam's Club. When you purchase PEDIGREE® products at Sam's Club during the month of October, PEDIGREE® will donate a bowl of food to a dog in need. If our PEDIGREE® purchase at Sam's Club can help out a dog at a shelter, just like Sam once was, that makes my heart happy. You can also upload a photo of your dog to Instagram or Twitter using the hashtag #LaterShelter for a chance to be featured on SamsClub.com. For every photo uploaded, PEDIGREE® will donate a bowl of food. That is awesome for shelters in need!

See, this is what I mean about him being polite. When it's time for him to be fed, he patiently waits near his dog dish. If we fill his water dish while he's eating his dog food, he politely steps aside to give us room. He truly is a very polite dog!

Read more about PEDIGREE® products at Sam's Club plus stories of inspiration here! Do you have a story to tell about your pet? Share with us in the comments or on Facebook or Instagram. Don't forget to upload your dog photo!

Facebook Auction Tips:

To find a Facebook auction group in your area, search the words "auction site" plus the name of your city in the Facebook search box. For instance, I searched "auction site Rochester, MN".

Most groups are private so you will need to have your city shown on your profile page before the admin will approve you to join the group.

Read all the rules for the group. Usually the rules will be a pinned post at the top. If you can't find the rules, ask the admin.

Only accept cash unless you feel comfortable accepting a check.

Keep track of your auctions on paper. If you have several auctions going at one time, it can get confusing!